Hovhannes Toumanian

Rest In Peace - Poem by Hovhannes Toumanian

And I stood up, so thatIn keeping with our ancestral laws,I may read a last prayerOn the hapless victims of my nation,Who in city and martOn hill and plain,From sea to sea,Extinguished are,Dead, strewn, scatteredIn their thousands.And I borrowed fireFrom the red flamesOf the great conflagration,That consumed Armenia;There in the bosomOf the cold serene skies,Ignited our mountainsThe Massis and the Ara,The Sipan and the SermantzThe Nemruth and the Tandurck.One by one I relitThe great candlesOf the Land of Armenia.I relit the lampOf the Holy Arakadz too.Like the distant sun;Endless and infinite.Always refulgent and brightOver my head.I stood there sullen and alone,Solid like Mount Massis;I called upon those miserable spirits,Strewn forever as far as Mesopotamia,As far as Assyria, the Sea of Armenia,As far as the Hellespont,As far as the stormy shores of Pontus.“Rest in peace, my orphans.In vain are the bitter tears,In vain and useless.Man the man-eating beastShall remain thusFor a long, long time.”To my right the Euphrates,To my left the Tigris,With mighty torrential roars,Singing psalmodiesMeandered throughTheir deep, deep valleys.The clouds, too,Rose from the plain of Tsirac,The giant censer.They set out from the verdant hills.From the Armenian Range.Clumps fragrant,Moved on and onSprinkling the jewels of rain,The scent of flowers,The scent of incense.As far as Mesopotamia.As far as the Hellespont.As far as the stormy shores of Pontus.“Rest in peace, O my orphans.In vain are the bitter tears,In vain and useless.Man the man-eating beastShall remain thus,For a long time to come.